Here are two autumn flowering beauties I came across while hiking in Kogelberg last week. Amazingly both had survived many decades under pine plantations! Following a fire and removal of the pines last year they are in full bloom for the first time in many years. The first is Tritoniopsis ramosa which grows on sandstone slopes from the Cederberg to Humansdorp and is adapted for pollination by long-proboscid flies.
A few meters away next to a giant burnt out Pine stump, I photgraphed this fragile Bulbinella trinervis. It is unscented and grows in rocky sandstone areas from Malmesbury to the Baviaanskloof Mountains. The genus Bulbinella has an interesting and very unusual distribution with most being restricted to the winter rainfall region of the Cape and six occuring naturally in New Zealand!
It really is remarkable how reslient most fynbos species are to surviving under plantations or invasive exotic trees.
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